death and Logan had not been dead very long. They had to act quickly to preserve evidence.
Fishing out her rover, she clicked. “Give me good news, Kelso.”
“A townhouse.”
“Fucking A. Where?”
Kelso gave her the name of the building. It was only a few blocks from the grocery. “Okay, we can consider this exigent circumstances since one of the tenants was murdered. However, I’ll get Chen to get a retroactive warrant from Judge Mackey.”
It wasn’t the first time they’d awakened a judge at two in the morning to approve a retroactive search warrant, so they knew which ones to approach. Mackey was one of the judges who would err on the side of public safety. After several dead ends by their Division and the Feds to locate Claudette, she didn’t expect pushback. “Besides it’s only ten. He shouldn’t be too grumpy.”
Signing off, she made the call to Chen who said he was on top of it. He didn’t sound pleased, but knew it was time sensitive.
“We’re done here. Just make a few copies of the videos for our file,” Gabby told Nadia. She got up from her chair, but Nadia grabbed her arm.
She glanced at the other woman questioningly.
“Be careful, okay?” Nadia said. “Logan was a big guy. That was a lethal blow to the head that caved in his skull like that.”
“I will. Don’t worry.”
Now she had to shoot off a text to Declan so he wouldn’t worry too. “Sorry. Caught up in a case. Don’t wait. Long night ahead.”
Eden Park Homes was a townhouse court configuration common for multifamily living. It was a series of detached buildings sharing a common courtyard. The manager, Mr. Shah, was cooperative, especially after they’d informed him that one of his tenants was dead.
“I’m so sorry to hear about Mr. Logan.” The man looked genuinely troubled. “Of course, you have my full cooperation. The lease was under his name.”
“Do you get a lot of tenants paying three months in advance? Cash?”
“Cash payments are not unusual.” Mr. Shah looked down at his hands.
“I wasn’t implying any wrong-doing. We’re just trying to find a paper trail.”
“I’ll admit some of my tenants are less than savory characters,” Mr. Shah’s South Asian accent slipped out. Judging how he mostly spoke like a regular California native, he’d probably been a first-generation immigrant at a very young age. “I’m just the property manager. We do background checks, but that would only go so far if they’re in town for extended business and not in the state database.”
Gabby already knew from the quick hack by Nadia that the majority of tenants in Eden Park were Eastern European.
“Do you want to see the unit now?” Mr. Shah asked. The manager had tried to call the number he had for Logan on file, but it went to voicemail.
She checked her phone and saw the go-ahead from Chen.
Kelso came in from the outside. “Found it.” Meaning Claudette’s Porsche.
“Where?”
“She wasn’t really hiding it. Basement level of the garage across the street.”
“So the metallic blue Toyota Camry noted on the lease was a secondary car.”
Even if Gabby’s question was rhetorical, Mr. Shah nodded. “Yes. Like I said. I deal mostly with Logan. Maybe late at night I see the other guy.”
“Have you ever noticed any altercations or disagreements between them?”
The manager shook his head.
“Guess we’ll see what we can find out,” Gabby said. She told Kelso and the other two officers accompanying them. “We’ll knock first. If no response, we’ll have Mr. Shah unlock the door.”
23
Sorry. Caught up in a case. Don’t wait. Long night ahead
Declan exhaled a frustrated breath and tossed his phone on the couch. Reading a book was useless, he couldn’t concentrate, and he never watched TV unless it was with Theo or Gabby and even that was new to him. Levi had already turned in for the night since Theo had a four o’ clock wake-up call, which meant Declan did, too.
It was eleven and he’d hoped to spend some time with Gabby, but that wasn’t looking promising at the moment. He should get used to being with a cop and roll with it. His phone buzzed from a number he knew was a new one Garrison had used.
“Roarke.”
“Is Theo home with you?” The CIA officer asked without much preamble.
“Yes.” A pause. “Why?’
“Raul Ortega escaped the CDC holding facility.”
“What? How?” Cold fingers of fear wrapped around his heart.
“Explain later. Pack up. Until we know what his game is, we need you mobile on short notice.”